Monday, March 30, 2009

A few weeks ago, I was staring into the depths of 5 assignments and a midterm. Ouch. That's not including several readings I do each week, plus a weekly reading summary and a weekly in-class assignment. That's a shit ton of schoolwork.

But its almost done. I outsourced one assignment to Darryl, who rocked it, and the rest were all me. I wrote the midterm, I got all the readings done. Now I just have one assignment left [which will be lengthy and completed over the course of the next week] as well as 3 readings left to do. These things will be done over the next 9 days, as the semester ends on April 8. Then, I'll be off to Renfrew for a lovely little Easter vacation, before returning to Ottawa for 5 final exams in 8 days. One last kick in the face before the semester ends.

Finally, I will have one summer course to take before my graduation in October, and hopefully I'll find work ASAP. I can begin a job on April 22 lol. I had the brilliant revelation today that my summer course should be by correspondence. That way, I can be spared the hassle of working a job schedule around a class. And I'm assuming it may be a little cheaper. That would rock.

Anyway, this is why I've been so busy lately. I hope y'all forgive me. I'm trying to come up with things to say.

I am currently interrupting my homework to blog, because the homework is boring, and I haven't blogged lately, and I miss you all.

My homework is stupid. And I was a bit stupid. I didn't read the assignment until Friday, and it is due on Wednesday. Apparently I have to interview a senior citizen IN PERSON and submit my written notes that I took during the interview along with my finished assignment. Well, I don't have an abundance of old people at my disposal in this apartment, so I used the next best thing: Darryl!

Apparently that boy is useful for everything [AND MORE!] ... even posing as a 92 year old woman [he pretended to be my great aunt, who rocks]. I was going to pretend to do it myself, but when I asked for his suggestion on one question, he was so convincing as an old lady that I signed him up for the whole interview. He rocked it. And I believe I made my note pages look like they were nicely prepared with questions, and then frantically scribbled on during an interview. Forgeries rock! lol

This weekend was a peaceful one, full of lots of good walking, the 3D IMAX movie Monsters vs Aliens which was good, and me being sick [with a cold] as a dog. I couldn't even sleep for some parts of last night. But Darryl took care of me.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Since the semester is ending, I've been very very very busy with assignments lately. My apologies. Also, I've finally reformatted my computer, and I'm now good to go. Let us mark my return with details from Montreal.

I claimed the position of driver, since Amanda was more afraid of driving in Montreal than I was. Michelle was not considered as an option. She's a back seat gal. We took almost an hour to finally get Michelle into the car, top up the wiper fluid, and then a lengthy attempt at getting the GPS to work. [NOTE TO AMANDA: I finally found the GPS option on my phone! I had hidden it since I don't use it. It is no longer hidden.]

I got us to Montreal successfully and we found a great cheap parking lot right near the Bell Centre. I took us downtown via metro where we wandered around in the maze of malls. We then ate at Nickel's. Celine Dion was not there, sadly. Why I planned mall time, I have no idea. While that's most peoples' thing in Montreal, I did not plan successfully for my audience of Amanda and Michelle. Fail.

After standing in the biggest line I've ever seen, we found out seats and I went to say hi to Athena who was also at the show.

Kerri was in the same section as Athena, so I hit two birds with one stone [birds = girls, stone = my award-winning smile].

The Pussycat Dolls whored it up, and I realized that I have ignored them so much in life that I did know the songs they were singing, but didn't know they were their songs. Weird.

This is how excruciatingly far away from the stage we were. Damn you, Montreal!

Perez Hilton creepily let us know that Britney was about to arrive.

This was the best picture I got of Britney, who is in that cage somewhere. I didn't try hard to get pics. I felt that the concert was fantastic, although the screaming fans drowned out the music a bit sometimes. Stupid girls.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Have you ever tried to plan something? Yes, you say? And did that planning SUCK?

Tomorrow, I am going to Montreal with Mando and Schelly to see Britney Spears. Awesome, right? As the one of us who has actually been to Montreal a couple times, and is most familiar with its layout, its metro, and both the bus and highway to get there, I took it upon myself to coordinate the trip. You would think that coordinating two other people would be easy.

I made sure to have the whole day free, so my schedule was not an issue. I figured that we might as well spend some actual time in the city since the girls have not been there, and it would suck to go straight from greyhound to stadium to greyhound. Amanda said she is good for any time. Michelle said the same. Last night, Amanda and I worked out a time of meeting at 9:15am to leave Ottawa at 10. This morning, I told Michelle of the plan and she freaked out. Apparently her idea of 'any time' is different than my idea of 'any time'. To her, 'any time' means 'afternoon'.

I then asked and/or demanded a minimum of 10 times for Michelle to give me a time she'd like to leave. No response, just bitchiness. I assumed she was bailing on the trip, since she does that, and Amanda and I said it would likely happen two months ago when we bought the tickets. After wasting a large amount of time trying to get a time out of Michelle, I let her know that no response meant her ticket was going to Darryl. No response.

Tonight, I was out with my friend Todd discussing employment options when Michelle started txting me. I guess she hit that moment where she realized that losing out on her $80 ticket would suck, and that she had been a fucking bitch. A plan has finally been worked out that Amanda will pick me up, and we will meet Michelle [since I know where she lives] at 1:15pm. Then, we will be off to Montreal!

But new issues have risen. It seems that the idiots that be over at the Britney Spears camp have screwed up, and may not have time to get the entire stage from Toronto to Montreal overnight and have it all set up for the Montreal show. Therefore, tonight's Toronto show start time was bumped earlier, and the Montreal show is moved back an hour, starting at 9pm. To bus back to Ottawa, we would have to leave the concert at 11:30, which would surely make us miss some of the show. This is not good. So in the morning, Amanda will ask her mom if I'm allowed to drive their car downtown Montreal [madness] since Amanda doesn't want to. We will have GPS at our disposal.

All I know is that somehow, I'll be seeing a little bit of Britney Spears in less than 24 hours. Woo!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

More computer issues, much more frustration, tears, and a hatred of Microsoft. I'll be using Darryl's laptop [French laptop... ugh] [i hate laptops... ugh] for the next few days until I can get my mom's Windows CD and get that reinstalled on my PC. This happens, of course, right when I have my last four assignments of the semester to do. That's just fantastic.

Other than that though, Darryl and I had a great evening. I made lasagna and garlic bread and it seemed to be a hit. I hope you all did something fun today!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It is 2009, and somehow, I have finally wound up in my first Polaroid ever.

Apparently Darryl has a Polaroid camera kickin' around, and still has some film [it is not longer being produced!]. I think I should feel special. Someone who is willing to use a rare, non-renewable resource on you is a keeper, right? How this is the FIRST Polaroid I've ever been in, I'll never know. You'd think someone would have had a Polaroid camera when I was born. They weren't full of retro-coolness back then, they were just normal crap.

In more recent technology news, Twitter has been pissing me off today. First, I wasn't posting my updates, and then it started deleting previous ones! Bitches!

And in more computer technology news, my PC has been a bit of a bitch ever since last Thursday when I decided to delete some programs. Darryl is going to come over tomorrow and set things right, while I make lasagna and garlic bread. Huzzah!

Friday, March 13, 2009

First of all, it seems that Post 300 came and went, so let us now celebrate this, my 303rd post! Huzzah! Moderate success!

There's nothing new going on with me, so lets take a peek at the family:

The MotherShe's doing well. She got a new floor installed in the upstairs bathroom this week. I hear it looks lovely. She's also getting a quote to have the kitchen/dining room/hallway re-floored. That would also be lovely. Its kind of sad when the flooring that is there now was installed within the past 20 years, under my watchful eye, and already needs to be replaced. Damn high traffic areas!

The FatherHe's good too. Getting back to work after a back-hurting accident. He was at a conference for two days this week at the Chateau Laurier [classy!] but I didn't get to see him. He has agreed to keep paying my rent for a couple months after school [he's only legally required in my parents' divorce settlement to pay it while I'm in school lol]. So that's a bonus! He always talks on the phone like he's afraid that once he stops paying my rent, I'll have no more use for him. He's ridiculous. Parents are silly.

The SisterHer crap is starting to come together. Her house is no longer hers [yay!] and in two weeks she'll be a normal, functioning human again. She still wont be any less messy. I took pictures of the disaster she turned my room into [the room I worked hard to make beautiful last summer] but they were too embarrassing to show online because the mess is just that awful. Thanks for messing up my niceness, bitch!

That's really all I've got. Pretty pathetic post. I battled computer and friend stupidity all day, so I'm burnt out. What's coming up for me in the future? Tomorrow night, Darryl and I are going to play Disco Bingo at a bar in Ottawa. I hear its fun. Its hosted by a guy I know. I love bingo. Next week is St. Patrick's Day, so I'm sure there will be a drink or two [hopefully with my friend Kerri]. And next Friday, Amanda and are going to Montreal to see Britney Spears, and maybe spend the day hanging out downtown if whoever's name gets inserted into that space is available in the daytime. Amanda hasn't Montrealed, so I think it would be nice if she gets to a little bit.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A fairly random title for some fairly random pictures from a fairly uneventful weekend spent with Darryl. We hung out at his place, watched TV, played Wii, and went out a couple times for various walks, dinners, and one trip to a movie theatre which turned into not seeing a movie because nothing good was playing. But here are some pics.

Darryl's cat Andréa. How very French of her to choose such a name.

Darryl petting one of the cats that live on Parliament Hill. I don't know how this fat cat would be able to get in the little doors off the cat houses. We saw two cats and two squirrels, and some bitch who decided to bring her big dog to see the cats.

A lovely view of the Library of Parliament. I think this is the first picture I've taken of it since it was newly unveiled 3 years ago, in all its restorative glory.

Monday, March 9, 2009

It has been 2.5 months since my last Book Club installment. I would normally like to read a book faster than that, but since the buses were out for two months and there was time off from riding the bus at Christmas and over Reading Week, and the bus is where I do my non-school reading, this one took a while.

Other People's Dirt by Louise Rafkin

I am the type of person who never knows what to read, and therefore I find out about books in random ways. I heard about this little gem on the night of New Years Day, while listening to CBC Radio with people I met the day before. Random! I took note of the name of the book because I was intrigued, and ordered it used and cheap online. The copy I got in the mail was a well-worn copy, originally from the Bethel Park Public Library, which the internet tells me is in Pennsylvania.

The book details one woman's life, from childhood to present [aka 1996, when the book was published, which is a span of maybe 40-50 years?] of her love of cleaning. Not only does she detail her favourite cleaning products [not in great detail] but she talks about the secret details of people's lives that she picks up along the way. She had me at 'I'm always there when the answering machine picks up.' Who doesn't love to find out whatever they can about other people's lives?

Later in the book, Louise goes on an adventure talking to other cleaners. Its all quite interesting. Much better than I'm making it sound. The fact that she is passionate about cleaning AND spying. I suggest you read it.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Approximately 14 months ago, Mando gave me a wonderful present for Christmas. A book called Lets Paint The 90s. In a time of great need, I finally turned to that good book tonight. Painting the 90s is fun, although quite frankly, I don't get like half the pictures in the book. I'm too young.

In honour of Mando, and her very recent post containing a Rachel hair joke (here).

I spent all day trying to think of something to blog about. I made my decision, and I took some pictures of it. When I turned on my camera to move the pictures to my computer, I found pictures that I took during reading week! So the pictures I was taking will be in my next post. Welcome to reading week.

We took a trip (my first) to the brand new Dollarama in Renfrew. It is insanely bright in there. It is also insanely well organized. I love it! And Lindsay loves being a bunny.

Rebecca loved the Easter stuff too.

Michelle just wandered, as usual.

Then we went to see Slumdog Millionaire. After the show, we found Athena, Elyse and Rebecca in the lobby.

Athena and Rebecca had matching boots, but one pair was a knockoff. Can you tell which one?

We hauled them to Tim Hortons with us, and Rebecca did horrible things to her Gingerbread Man. tsk tsk.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

In 11.5 months, I'll be boarding a plane to the Vancouver Olympics. I've got my event tickets purchased. Now I need the rest of the package.

I just checked, and I can fly round trip with Tango for $896. I think that's pretty good. Now, I need to find a way to pay for this trip. A job would be nice. Sadly, I can't really start a new job for 8 or 9 more weeks. I want money now!

So I ask you, my lovely readers... would you like to sponsor my trip to the Olympics?

Yes, you say? Well thank you. Just message me for options to send me cheques. Thank you! Much love indeed.

*NOTE: Lodging for my 4 or 5 day trip will consist of the free-est place I can find. I'm not opposed to my own little patch of Stanley Park for a couple nights. Its Vancouver... I should embrace nature like the rest of the hippies, right?

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The picture isn't perfectly clear, but guy with his hand on the globe is Darryl. He was one of the people chosen to appear on the advertisement for the school he teaches at. It can be seen on buses all over the city. Inside on the little ads, and outside on the big bus-side ads. They will be kickin' around for the next 5 years. Jealous! I told him to get one of his students to steal one of the ads for him lol.

We spent the weekend together. Didn't do a whole lot. Not a whole lot to do, really. But things are going very well, which is all that matters! Woo!

Now I'm back to reality where I've got constant school work to do. That's exciting, no? I can't believe it is already March. My university career SHOULD be done in 2 months, but sadly I'll be taking a summer class, since I got an E last semester. That's not a fail and its not a pass. It's just a fuck you. Stupid university. I wonder how much a summer class will cost me. Now I wont graduate until October. Lame.

My last exams of the semester will be on April 22, which means I can start a job almost 2 weeks earlier than other years. Now I need to start getting on that whole job hunt thing. Lame.